ICD-10-CM › V00-Y99 › W65-W74 › W codes › W69

W69

Accidental drowning and submersion while in natural water

Not billableICD-10-CM diagnosis code.

This code exists but cannot be submitted on its own. It groups the more specific codes beneath it.

A category header for its whole life, FY2016 onwards. It has never been valid for submission on its own.

Submit one of these 3 more specific codes instead:

  • W69.XXXA Accidental drowning and submersion while in natural water, initial encounter
  • W69.XXXD Accidental drowning and submersion while in natural water, subsequent encounter
  • W69.XXXS Accidental drowning and submersion while in natural water, sequela

This code requires a seventh character. See the rule below.

What has happened to this code

Every change the publisher made, from 2014 to now. Entries marked draft are from the pre-implementation releases: ICD-10 took effect on 1 October 2015, so nothing before FY2016 was ever valid on a claim.

  1. FY2014 Added to the draft code set draft Accidental drowning and submersion while in natural water

Official coding rules

Published by CDC for FY2027. A rule attached to a category binds every code beneath it, so the rules inherited from this code's ancestors are shown with the code they come from.

This code

Seventh character required

  • The appropriate 7th character is to be added to code W69

Excludes1 - never coded here

  • accidental drowning and submersion due to fall into natural body of water (W16.111, W16.121, W16.131)

Also known as

  • Accidental drowning and submersion while in lake
  • Accidental drowning and submersion while in open sea
  • Accidental drowning and submersion while in river
  • Accidental drowning and submersion while in stream

Inherited from the W65-W74 section Accidental non-transport drowning and submersion (W65-W74)

Excludes1 - never coded here

  • accidental drowning and submersion due to fall into water (W16.-)
  • accidental drowning and submersion due to water transport accident (V90.-, V92.-)

Excludes2 - not included here

  • accidental drowning and submersion due to cataclysm (X34-X39)

How CDC's index refers to this code

Wording from the official alphabetic index. Much of it appears nowhere in the code description, which is why a search for the everyday phrase so often finds nothing.